Big Stan [Blu-ray]

BIG STAN - Blu-Ray Movie

Big Stan, Rob Schneider’s Kung Fu spoof, is about as hilarious as one can get without some hardcore stunts such those seen in Kung Fu Hustle. Big Stan is Schnieder, starring as Stan Minton, a lowbrow, too-tan real-estate con artist who, in the opening scene, is scamming an elderly woman out of her savings for a fake timeshare. From here, he’s busted and sentenced to prison, and the film’s setting is split between Minton’s gaudy mansion, in which he attempts to toughen up before serving, and a jail ripe with gangs split by race and undersexed men. Stan is a character whose strength and confidence grows throughout the story, initially thanks to the cheerleading of his doormat wife, Mindy (Jennifer Morrison), but mostly because The Master (David Carradine) trains him in a combo martial-arts style that is as absurd as the idea of Carradine chain-smoking while reviving his Shaolin monk persona from the old TV show. Carradine is funny in Big Stan, though it’s Schneider’s timing and slapstick physical comedy that carries the movie. Does he really learn how to break through wood blocks with his middle finger? One may never know. Strange, unlikely plot twists, like one involving prison Warden Gasque (Stan Wilson), are totally corny. But there are sublime moments, such as those when Stan is able to unite warring teams of buff men long enough to perform choreographed dance numbers, that make the whole film worth watching. Gay jokes abound in Big Stan, but not the calloused kind; in fact, the whole film is aimed at portraying a fantasy in which prison is a safe haven for guys of all sorts, a men’s club as pleasant as a spa. It’s a revelry that may never materialize but it never hurts to imagine. --Trinie Dalton